Rail lubrication is commonly employed by the railroad industry to reduce track wear in high friction locations. Examples of these locations can include, for example, curves, switches and hump/switching yards. Through the application of suitable lubricants, the coefficient of friction can be significantly reduced at these high friction locations, which can help with extending the usable life of the rail and reduce associated maintenance costs.
When rail is laid down to form a railway, each individual rail defines a gauge-face, a field face and a crown or top of rail. The gauge-face of each rail generally faces inwardly of the railway and toward a second parallel length of rail that cooperatively define the railway while the field face of each rail generally faces outward from the railway. The gauge-face generally interfaces with a wheel flange of a rail car as the rail car traverses the rail, while a wheel surface rolls along the crown. As the gauge-face and the crown are the portions of the rail that continually interface with wheels of the rail cars, these are also the portions of the rail where application of lubricant is beneficial.
A variety of difficulties are encountered when attempting to lubricate the gauge-face of the rail. First, the gauge-face defines a generally vertical surface that can make it difficult to retain lubricant for application to passing wheel flanges. Secondly, the potential exists for physical contact between the passing wheel flanges and a gauge-face lubrication assembly, such that substantial damage can be inflicted to gauge face lubrication assembly as part of its operation. As such, it would be advantageous to further improve upon conventional gauge-face lubrication assemblies to increase their effectiveness and reliability.